BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Hi guys! I recently signed up for the forum since I just acquired an Emerald Green Distortion and Honey Bee Overdrive. It definitely took a few minutes to get a feel for the pedals, but I'm getting close to finding the tones I was hoping for. I will probably be adding them to my board to complement my current drive selection: a Fulltone OCD v.4 and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet (the NEW "best" versions, according to Fuller. Hey, wait! I thought the last versions I bought were the best ones?! Hehe).

Anyway, I had a couple of questions, mainly about the HBOD. Unfortunately, I can't crank my Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 right now to test them out, so I did the demo on a little solid state Marshall MG15CDR combo with my Les Paul. Usually, I find most pedals to have way too much usable output and brightness, but the HBOD seems lacking in both. Even with the volume almost dimed, it's just past unity gain. And it doesn't seem like I can match up the level of treble to the bypassed signal. Also, it seems as though the drive doesn't increase the output at all either. Now that makes a bit of sense, but it's just not anything I've experienced in a pedal before. Is everything fine with the HBOD that I bought? Can the effect this box produces not be appreciated on a smaller solid state amp? Thanks for your input!

5digits6strings wrote:Hi guys! I recently signed up for the forum since I just acquired an Emerald Green Distortion and Honey Bee Overdrive. It definitely took a few minutes to get a feel for the pedals, but I'm getting close to finding the tones I was hoping for. I will probably be adding them to my board to complement my current drive selection: a Fulltone OCD v.4 and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet (the NEW "best" versions, according to Fuller. Hey, wait! I thought the last versions I bought were the best ones?! Hehe).

Anyway, I had a couple of questions, mainly about the HBOD. Unfortunately, I can't crank my Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 right now to test them out, so I did the demo on a little solid state Marshall MG15CDR combo. Usually, I find most pedals to have way too much usable output and brightness, but the HBOD seems lacking in both. Even with the volume almost dimed, it's just past unity gain. And it doesn't seem like I can match up the level of treble to the bypassed signal. Also, it seems as though the drive doesn't increase the output at all either. Now that makes a bit of sense, but it's just not anything I've experienced in a pedal before. Is everything fine with the HBOD that I bought? Can the effect this box produces not be appreciated on a smaller solid state amp? Thanks for your input!

hmmm... needing to nearly max out the volume to get to unity has definitely not been my experience with the HBs I've played... I've only played them through tube amps but I wouldn't think that would make a difference. You might shoot BJ a PM and explain the situation, does sound a little off to me.

and also, welcome! I definitely hope you get this figured out and are able to enjoy the HB to its fullest extent

NewarkWilder wrote:hmmm... needing to nearly max out the volume to get to unity has definitely not been my experience with the HBs I've played... I've only played them through tube amps but I wouldn't think that would make a difference. You might shoot BJ a PM and explain the situation, does sound a little off to me.

and also, welcome! I definitely hope you get this figured out and are able to enjoy the HB to its fullest extent

Thanks! I just sent him a PM. Any other suggestions/ideas in the meantime? In the manual it says that "vol sets the balance between processed signal and non-processed". Does that mean it is not possible to increase the volume, making it essentially a "blend" knob? I mean, if it worked that way, I'd still have a fair amount of signal all the way counter clockwise, right?

Welcome to the forum. I'd reserve judgement until you've tried the HBOD with a real amp, like your Bad Cat. ODs like this one are designed to interact in a synergistic fashion with a tube amp. In my experience they barely function when used in front of a cheap solid state amp.

Of course it's possible you've happened upon a damaged one. What sort of power supply are you using for it?

yeah i'm not really sure what else to tell you, but i'm hardly an expert, just going on my own personal experience


ps--you're in south florida? where? we've got a couple of floridians here. I'm in Sarasota and Slim Henderson is over in Lauderdale.

this is my buddy MIKE from MAE MUSIC in ft lauderdale, the most AWESOME store in all of broward county.

so......mike, meet newarkwilder Mike

Mike @ MAE is a great guy, and has my old bogner 2x12 cabinet

HB is an unusual pedal and "feel". I have to go to key west in the morning, but will be back next week, and will stop by with my pedalboard.......you've already tried my snow white fuzz, and i promised you a demo of the little green wonder. also, the sweet honey OD will be here soon, so that may come with me to the store as well.

I really want to talk Ken into getting the MP pedals into the store, as they are hard to get down here, and MAE is the best store down here to be a dealer, by a long shot.

and you will find tons of helpful people here...you've already been lurking. it's about time you joined up.

i found my VERY FIRST BJF pedal at MAE years ago, one that Dan Spitz from Anthrax had traded in...

"hmmmmm....what's this? it LOOKS cool.....wonder what it does? emerald green distortion machine? i'll buy it"

heh

it's all YOUR FAULT

5digits6strings wrote:
Anyway, I had a couple of questions, mainly about the HBOD. Unfortunately, I can't crank my Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 right now to test them out, so I did the demo on a little solid state Marshall MG15CDR combo with my Les Paul. Usually, I find most pedals to have way too much usable output and brightness, but the HBOD seems lacking in both. Even with the volume almost dimed, it's just past unity gain. And it doesn't seem like I can match up the level of treble to the bypassed signal. Also, it seems as though the drive doesn't increase the output at all either. Now that makes a bit of sense, but it's just not anything I've experienced in a pedal before. Is everything fine with the HBOD that I bought? Can the effect this box produces not be appreciated on a smaller solid state amp? Thanks for your input!

this does not sound right.....lucky for us down here, the USA authorized repair facility is alpha kinetix, which i am sure you already know of......but......let's see what BJ says. it may be worth a short trip back to "the mothership" for some "fluff n buff" from the man himself. sometimes the BJF pedals like to go home to see daddy

the honeybee i used for a while had plenty of gain, and did not exhibit these characteristics.....

when i come see you after next week, hopefully you will get to hear the new sweet honey as well

I get unity gain with the volume on 10 o´clock and the drive set at 2 o´clock. (Nature set at about noon)

Strat-o-lux wrote:Welcome to the forum. I'd reserve judgement until you've tried the HBOD with a real amp, like your Bad Cat. ODs like this one are designed to interact in a synergistic fashion with a tube amp. In my experience they barely function when used in front of a cheap solid state amp.

Of course it's possible you've happened upon a damaged one. What sort of power supply are you using for it?

First I tried battery operation, and then I hooked it up to my Pedal Power 2...same results.

oh wow--well any friend of Bobby's is a friend of mine for sure--don't worry, we'll get this all figured out for ya one way or another!